BlackBerry Joins Letter to Senate Concerning Autonomous Vehicles

This is not the first time we’ve heard of the AV START Act.

BlackBerry joined 107 other companies urging the U.S. Senate to pass the American Vision for Safer Transportation through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies Act (AV Start). Other companies that joined in signing this letter include BMW, Ford, General Motors, Harley-Davidson and Tesla, among many other notable companies.

This is not the first time we have heard BlackBerry push for AV START. Back in May, BlackBerry CEO wrote a piece for CNBC about this very bill.

The bill aims for a standardized set of regulations, instead of what seems to be a patchwork that is growing among states now. “Governments across different countries have been asked by a number of industry players, including trade groups and consumer groups, to develop regulations that define what ‘safe’ and ‘secure’ means for a driverless vehicle. The AV START Act would be a good place to begin with the ultimate goal being to have a globally harmonized policy,” said Chen in his May post.

There are currently 5 Democrat senators that are opposing the bill in it’s current state, as well as advocacy groups that are claiming there are safety concerns.

The letter states,”As we have written previously, the AV START Act will help strengthen existing safety
oversight by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and complements the iterative
work of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) with respect to their highly automated
vehicle policy guidance.” Indeed, it seems as if the companies signing on to the AV START Act are looking for a standardized method which would increase safety and security of connected and autonomous vehicles.